Two arrested in purse snatching

Two suspects are in custody in Eddy County in connection with the purse snatching that occurred in the parking lot of Ace Hardware on Tuesday afternoon.

Vincent Montaño, 25, and Markie Nycole Smith, 21, were arrested in Carlsbad on Wednesday on warrants out of Silver City and booked into the Eddy County Detention Center just before 8 that night, a booking clerk at that Detention Center confirmed Thursday evening.

Montaño is charged with one count each of larceny and robbery, and is being held on a $25,000 cash-only bond, and Smith is charged with accessory to commit robbery, and is being held on a $10,000 cash-only bond.

The incident occurred just after 1 p.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of Ace Hardware on Highway 180 in Silver City.

The victim said a man came up from behind her while she was heading to her car and stole her purse and a bag with plumbing parts she had just purchased to repair a toilet. A witness reported hearing the woman scream that the man had just stolen her purse and saw the suspect run across the parking lot and get into a maroon car, possibly a Malibu, which was being driven by a woman, with two small children in the car. The witness said the suspect had just bought a snow cone from the Island Paradise Food Truck in the parking lot before the purse snatching occurred.

A police officer reported finding some of the victim’s property scattered in the 2500 block of Kimberly Drive.

“The officers and the detective did a great job in getting the information on the two and filing charges,” Silver City Police Chief Ed Reynolds said, “and the Carlsbad Police Department did a great job at tracking these two down.”

Montaño served four and a half years in the Department of Corrections for a 2011 case in which he pleaded guilty to a host of stolen weapons charges, including aggravated burglary, eight counts of larceny of a firearm, eight counts of receiving stolen property, and one count of criminal damage to property. He was sent to the Department of Corrections April 16, 2012, and released in 2015 but his parole was revoked in November of that year after he tested positive for meth at least three times and failed to show up for his probation appointments. He was released again July 14, 2016, and his probation was continued until November 2019, and he was referred to Drug Court.

He has been in and out of the Grant County Detention Center since September 2016 on probation violations. He was in the Grant County Detention Center from September 2016 through Jan. 9 when he was transferred to Villa de Esperanza, a drug treatment center in Carlsbad. He was booked back into the Detention Center on a warrant on Feb. 2 and released on Feb. 6 on an unsecured bond, and served three days from May 30 to June 1 on a probation violation, and was released on time served on the bench warrant, a Grant County Detention officer said.